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Aftermath: Your Favorite Post-Atari Jaguar Games

Nearly every modern-day retrospective on the Atari Jaguar mentions the console's small but dedicated (rabid?) fanbase and the continued software support the console has received post-Atari. In this regard, the Jaguar is somewhat unique as new titles started trickling out soon after Atari's demise. Throughout the years, that trickle has really never let up.

In the immediate aftermath of Atari Corporation's 1996 reverse merger with JTS, longtime publisher Telegames announced plans to manufacture and distribute complete but not yet released commercial games that it purchased from Atari. The six Telegames releases (1996-98) and ICD's Aircars (1997) became the first titles made available to Jaguar owners after Atari abandoned the platform. The games are mostly commercial quality titles and some, like Zero 5, Iron Soldier 2 and World Tour Racing, gave us a glimpse into what second generation Jaguar gaming might have looked like. But this wasn't the end.

In 1999, persuaded by the Jaguar fanbase and Battlesphere developers 4Play/Scatalogic, the then rights holders of Atari - Hasbro - agreed to open the Jaguar platform for indie development without the need for licensing. That's right, the Jaguar was officially an open platform. This paved the way for the release of other Jaguar titles, including Battlesphere and Battlesphere Gold and a host of lost titles courtesy of Songbird Productions. Later, the discovery of the encryption key for the Jaguar CD led to a slew of hobbyist and independent efforts.

Today, Jaguar development continues to go strong with original releases by Reboot, Orion, MD Games and BitJag, as well as recent ports from Cyrano Jones, Piko Interactive and RGC. Further, new tools have been created making the bar of entry much lower for aspiring Jaguar developers.

Have you played any of the Jaguar's fantastic post-Atari releases? If so, what are your favorites?

I've never really given it much thought like that but you've brought up a really great point and that's pointing out the transition titles of the Jaguar. The second wind and the truly stellar titles that the system was capable of.

Iron Soldier 2 and Zero 5 are both amazing games as they are. SkyHammer is impressive and could have been a real winner had it been properly finished and polished. I'm not saying it doesn't deserve it's own standing credit for being an unfinished game but had they really went all the way through with it and really polished the bits near the end, that would've been a truly great example to side along with IS2 and Zero 5. Then there's World Tour Racing. So much promise that needed to be corrected before an actual release happened. I love what it could have been and it shows so much hope but the framerate ultimately kills it for me. The fact that an even better version is said to have existed makes matters even worse. Then there's BattleSphere, which goes without saying. Strangely I was never a hardcore fan of BattleSphere nor got into it like many others did but I can recognize a really great game and give it credit for what it is capable of, even if it's not exactly my cup of tea.